Overcoming Racism In Santa Paula, California

Santa Paula, California located in Ventura County is a community of hardworking people and I can say that everyone in the community knows an immigrant or field worker. Every morning my community wakes up before down to go work, at times until sunset, to give their family’s food and a better life. On any giving day driving through the hill, back roads you are able to appreciate the clear view of the valley covered with orchards and to the west, the Pacific Ocean. The kind of perfect combination to raise a family.
Santa Paula is labeled as a “ghetto placed” by other communities but, to its residents; it’s just perfect. In 2015, this community was targeted by NRG Energy Inc. This power company had felt like Santa Paula was the perfect site for

As Mr. Bullard put it in his article, Overcoming Racism in Environmental Decision-making, “if a community is poor or inhabited largely by people of color, there is a good chance that it receives less protection than a community that is affluent and white.” (Bullard) The problem at hand is how because of someone’s race their air, land, and water will get polluted. Kids will play in areas with contaminants that will harm their health; especially their brain development. A domino effect takes place because, in the long run, it means that these kids will grow up and have difficulties in school, leading to a vicious cycle of

A well-known saying says, " Money is power." Without getting into detail wealthy citizens can contribute more to the political campaigns and thus creating biases. These biases can have an effect on the decisions of government agencies; which leads to the placement of polluting facilities near communities of lower income. To put in in perspective, in 1990, the Natural Journal Found that "for all the federal environmental laws aimed at protecting citizens from the air, water, and waste pollution, penalties for noncompliance were 46 percent higher in white communities than in minority communities." (Bullard) It seems as if money hires protection for affluent communities against pollution and other environmental harms. If in 2015, we still see this kind of behavior then it means that many of the cases in between haven’t had much importance in politics to take initiative to solve them. Companies are allowed to pollute communities of color and lower income because it seems that they don’t have a strong of a voice then wealthier areas. These hard-working people not only work in the lowest paying, dangerous occupations but political biases make it easier for pollution to reach their lives. Guides corporations through the path of least resistance towards the low-income areas where they allocate their pollution. (Bullard) What we are seeing is the